Great Expectations

Deepankar Sharda

Nehal Wadhera, 21, is on cloud nine. It’s not often that you smash 42 fours and 37 sixes in an innings. And it’s not often that you play an innings of 578, which Wadhera did for Ludhiana against Bathinda in the Punjab U-23 Inter-district tournament recently. Ludhiana declared their innings at 880/6, with Wadhera contributing a staggering 65.68% to the team’s total.

Only one Ludhiana player has represented India at the senior level — Yashpal Sharma, an important member of the Indian team that won the 1983 World Cup. Wadhera’s knock has given rise to the hope that he’d become the second Ludhianvi to play for India, though it’s very early days yet.

Wadhera’s 578 – a “once in a lifetime achievement” — came in the semifinals of the Punjab U-23 tournament in Ludhiana. But make no mistake, the left-handed top-order batsman isn’t a bolt out of the blue: he’s already represented the Indian U-19 team and has a long history of heavy runs-scoring.

In 2021, he was the highest scorer for Punjab in the Senior Inter-District ODI Tournament, with 381 runs in four matches. At the JP Atray Tournament, he played an attractive innings of 171 runs, the highest score in the 26-year history of the tournament. His aggregate for the event was 273 runs from three matches.

Before that, in the 2018 Challenger Trophy, he was the highest scorer of India Green and the third-highest overall.

Special innings

Wadhera’s 578 off 414 balls against Bathinda was a very special effort by the elegant left-hander. It’s now termed as the third-highest score by a No. 3 batsman in representative cricket in the world. At the state level, he broke former state skipper Chamanlal Malhotra’s 66-year-old record for the highest score in Punjab U-23 cricket.

Terming it the best innings of his career, Wadhera says he’s looking forward to getting into the Punjab Ranji trophy team for the quarterfinals when the knockout stage takes off after the IPL is over. “Yes, it feels so good, but there’s a lot to come,” Wadhera said about his staggering knock. “The pitch was responding well to spinners. However, my hard work paid off.”

What memories does he have of batting for so long in the heat in Ludhiana? The youngster talks about the nervous 490s, when he was informed about Malhotra’s record of 502 runs. “I was at 498. And during lunch break, my coach informed me about the record. I played calmly to surpass that record. And thereafter, it was just fun for me,” he says. “I played my natural game and reached 578. It was an amazing feeling to get a standing ovation by everyone!”

Wadhera, who has spent time with the current senior Indian team head coach Rahul Dravid at the National Cricket Academy, says it was a great education. “It was a life-changing learning experience. Dravid sir taught me the importance of mental fitness. He would take me out of my comfort zone and put me under tense conditions, so as to test my abilities. It has really helped me a lot over time,” says Wadhera.

Challenges

His massive score has brought Wadhera into the limelight, and there are expectations that his career would progress smoothly from here, but it’s not that easy. He’s yet to play the Ranji Trophy or any First-Class cricket. Just for reference,, the previous Punjabi batting sensation, Shubman Gill, made his Ranji Trophy debut at 18 and the Test debut at 21. Mumbai batting star Prithvi Shaw — who had been watched keenly for years before he was picked up for Mumbai and then India — was net yet 19 when he made a century on Test debut against West Indies.

Wadhera must first break into the state team, score consistently and heavily at that level before he can nurse the hope of playing for India. This is exactly what Gill did before him.

Getting into the Indian team is incredibly difficult, and Wadhera would need to work out of his skin to make his long-term goal a reality. A more realistic possibility is getting into one of the 10 IPL teams, for each team comprises around 15 Indian players.

Shot at IPL

In fact, Wadhera spent some time with IPL team Rajasthan Royals earlier this year when he was called for a trial. Though he was not picked up at the auction in February, he says he learnt a lot from Kumar Sangakkara, the Rajasthan coach.

The key advice was for Wadhera to work on his power-hitting, which suits him well as he relishes attacking the bowlers. He possesses an attractive cover drive and likes to play his natural game. “I love playing cover drives and lofted straight drives for sixes,” he says. “After every practice session, I make sure to spend a good amount of time practising big shots for sixes. No matter what, I won’t hold back when I swing the bat. It gives me the confidence to play my natural game without any fear.”

Wadhera belongs to the new breed of batsmen who are expected to freely “express themselves”, ie play their natural strokes. It’s instructive that Sangakkara’s advice to him was to work on his power-hitting — that’s what gets many players into the limelight in leagues such as the IPL.

But to get into the toughest, most challenging format of the sport, Test cricket, many more skills than power-hitting are required. Let’s see what young Wadhera is made of.

Tall scores and big stars

There often are very big scores at the junior level. The most famous example is from 1988, when Sachin Tendulkar, not yet 15, and Vinod Kambli, 16, added 664 runs in a Harris Shield match in Mumbai. Tendulkar scored 326 and Kambli 349. What they achieved, especially the former, needs no recounting. But not all big scores result in youngsters becoming legends. The most famous example is Mumbai’s Pranav Dhanawade. In 2016, then only 15, Dhanawade scored 1009 not out off 323 balls in a school match – the highest score ever in minor cricket, breaking a record set in 1899 in England. But there was a catch: Dhanawade was playing against ‘pace’ bowlers who were much younger – 10 years old and only 4ft 4in tall, for instance. He was given 25 chances by his smaller opponents, and the boundary on no side was over 40 yards. It was a massacre of innocents. Dhanawade hasn’t done anything of note since then. Another Mumbaikar, Prithvi Shaw, did score big as a teen and then get into the Mumbai and India teams. At 14, Shaw made 546 in the Harris Shield, breaking the record of Armaan Jaffer (498), who himself had broken the record of Sarfaraz Khan (439). The scores of Tendulkar and Kambli seem tiny in comparison. This only goes only to emphasise that a batsman must score big at every level.

I don’t make plans, but I have one aim: To become of a successful cricketer. My performance in future matches will give direction to my career, while my past records portray my capabilities — Nehal Wadhera, Punjab Cricketer

Track record

• Nehal Wadhera has captained the Punjab U-14 squad, represented the state at U-16 twice level and U-19 thrice
• Captained Punjab in Cooch Behar Trophy and scored most runs in 2019-20, 668 runs in 8 matches including a highest of 201 runs
• Punjab vice-capatin in Vinoo Mankad Trophy in 2019-20, made most runs for team with 250 runs, and also took 15 wickets